Duplicating Keywords in Page Title

[Robert-B]

Hello All,

I am currently trying to establish the TITLE tag of my homepage.

I am trying to target 2 terms plus my company name.

For example, purposes, the two keywords are:

• Widget Program
• Widget Software

My company Name is:

• Widget Direct

I originally had the title as:

Widget Program | Software | Widget Direct

My thought was that I didn't want to repeat the word "Widget"  too many times.

However, the SEOmoz on-page report card keeps telling me I should have the exact keyword in my title tag.

In that case it would make the title:

Widget Program | Widget Software | Widget Direct

Do you think that is better so that I have each keyword in the title or will that result in a penalty because it looks like I'm stuffing the title with the keyword 'widget'?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[BrianCrouch]

**Widget Program | Widget Software | Widget Direct does look like stuffing. Can you add some context to help with that? **

Widget Direct:  Find Widget Programs and Widget Software here.

******Even that looks a little amiss. Maybe "**Widget Direct: Programs and Software for Widgets!" ********

[benjaminspak]

In light of the new Panda update I am testing to see if natural page titles rank better. Chances are if it sounds spammy to you, Google is going to eventually think so too.

If you do go the keyword rich route change your divider text to look less spammy:

Widget Program | Widget Software | Widget Direct

Widget Program - Widget Software - Widget Direct

If natural is something you want to try, and you're trying to target a local area

Widget Program is made by Widget Software company Widget Direct in Local Area

Of course this is just an example, the title is too long at 77 charaters.

I use this character counter tool when I craft my titles.

http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/charcount.shtml

[Robert-B]

My concern with that was that I wanted to make sure the first keywords were the most important ones....

That is why I wanted "Widget Program" first as opposed to my company name (Widget Direct).

My other concern was that I didn't want to add many more words and reduce the weighting of my key terms.

[Adam.Whittles]

Hi Robert,

Firstly, the SEOMoz on-page report is really only a guide and you shouldn't worry too much about using it. To be honest, I rarely use it and just follow best practices.

That said, there are still several alternatives you could try:

1. You do not necessarily need to have your company name in the title. This is a practice that is quite common place nowadays but realistically, unless you're a strong brand that has huge volumes of branded traffic, you don't need the company name in the title.

2. I would maybe suggest targeting the two keywords on different pages i.e. a Widget Program page and a Widget Software Page. This maybe the most user friendly option and probably the best option overall. Especially if the two keywords attract large volumes in traffic.

Hope this helps,

Adam.

[Adam.Whittles]

FYI

Google no longer limits titles by character length but rather by pixel width.

I use SEOmofo to craft titles.

[irvingw]

Don't repeat the same keyword twice in your meta tag!

Use your main keyword phrase exact match at the beginning, secondary after that. if the name of your domain is widget direct then it's already in your domain name so you don't need to add it to your title tag.

assuming "widget program" is your primary target and your secondary target also has "widget" in it go with something like this

<title>Widget Program | Software Widgets</title>

<title>Widget Program | Buy Software Widgets</title>

<title>Widget Program | Software Widgets for Dummies</title>

Use the plural to avoid repetitiveness and lost the company name also to avoid repetition. It is better for the secondary keyword to not have an exact match than to spam your keyword title.

[irvingw]

What happens when your son comes up to you and says "daddy daddy daddy daddy" you get annoyed right? So does Google.

[DougRoberts]

Hi Robert, as has been mentioned used the SEOmoz report card as a guide, but don't worry if you're not getting full marks! You've also got to look at the big picture too.

Your goal isn't to have the worlds most finely optimised titles! Your goal is to get more (qualified) visitors and make them customers.

With so many variables, both search engine ranking factors and human behaviours, to play with there are lots of things to take into consideration and getting overly focused on just one thing can be detrimental.

Yes, you do want to have your key words in your page titles - but remember your home page isn't your only page and you may have pages that are more relevant (or should be more relevant) for "Widget Program" for example. You need to decide which pages you want to rank for what, and why! Don't expect your homepage to do all your heavy lifting!

Homepages, unless the site is very focused, tend to end up being very generic and broad and tend to cater for those searcher/visitors who know your company brand and search for you by name (or enter your domain directly)

Remember too, that "containing relevant keywords" isn't the only job that your page title has to do. There's no point ranking highly in the SERPS if your snippet looks so spammy and unappealing that nobody wants to click on it.

The combination of your page title, description (and to some extent your URL) need to provide a compelling reason why someone would want to click on it. Are they going to find the answers to the questions, satisfy their needs etc? Can they see the benefit they receive by clicking.

A title made of a list of keywords is less likely to be compelling.

Hope this helps!

[Robert-B]

Thank you everyone for the great responses!

This has certainly given me a lot to think about.

Cheers!

[irvingw]

Feel free to always thumbs up or mark answered for the people who take their time to help out

[Robert-B]

Done.

Thanks!

[benjaminspak]

Really? Scratches Chin "Good... Good.." have a link to an article on it?

[Adam.Whittles]

Here is SEOmofo's article on the (not so) recent change. It is safer to limit your characters to 70 rather than 77 as some titles that are 77 characters are more likely to get truncated in the SERPs. The SEOmofo snippet tester is good because it factors in pixel width rather than character length.